Venturing out this weekend
 

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=253575I want to venture out tomorrow morning with my bike. But I don't want to challenge myself THAT much. I've been riding around the streets and I'm already tired of looking at homes and yards. So, I thought I would try a short trail. Of course, it wasn't until after I left the state, that the last link I needed on the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail was completed. So that trail is unreasonable for me. Surprisingly, there are not alot of Rail-Trails in NC. At least not in Eastern NC. There are just a couple around me but the surface is gravel. There is a nice trail around here that goes along the river but even the LBS tells me to stay away from that trail because it's not safe. When people refer to somethig not being "safe", they aren't exactly talking about road hazards. It's personal safety and the crime rate has skyrocketed in the past 12-18 months. Shootings are occuring many times a week.

So, my question is, will my bike handle gravel? I'm riding a comfort bike. I have no idea what these tires are. I'm just not ready to get a hybrid yet.

My guess is that it will, but the only way to know for sure is to try it. If your tires are wide enough and the trail is relatively flat you should be just fine. But you won't know if you don't try. And what you do on your bike might be quite different from what others would do. I have ridden more than 50 miles on a hybrid, and yet some would say "you can't do that on that kind of bike" because they wouldn't want to do it if they didn't have the fanciest, lightest, carbon fibre bicycle. But you can do whatever you are comfortable with. So find a trail you want to ride and give it a shot :-)

I read your location as Eastern Canada (not Carolina) and balked at the idea of shootings. Then I looked more closely.

Back to topic, and those tires should be fine on packed gravel, especially if it's a rail trail, and hence not hilly. Just take it slowly, and if you see that the gravel is loose rather than packed, take it even more slowly. Imagine it's like driving on a wet or slightly icy road, so think ahead and try not to brake too fast.

Have fun.

Yes - they should work on most gravel trails

Can't tell from your photo how fat your tires are. My guess though is that on a comfort bike your tires will be fine on hard packed dirt trails.

A little secret, I've discovered that if you get into "sand" on a trail, just put your bike in a lower gear and "spin", it will take you thru the sand, JMHO, YMMV. Yes, your comfort bike tire looks like a decent arrowhead tread, we road a LOT of hardpacked and semi-soft rail trails here in CO. with that type of tire on our 2005 Fuji Monterey 3.0 comfort bikes, take it easy and have FUN!! :)

Thanks to everyone for their input. I have an idea where this particular trail is and if it's where I think it is, then I have already walked some of it, in the past. It's just the guy at the LBS kinda confused me. He said comfort bikes were only good on asphalt but with the hybrid, I could do hard packed gravel, too. Dang, sometimes, I'm just too trusting. Maybe he wanted to sell me that Raleigh Hybrid.

If I travel north to try out this particular trail, I'll also check out another LBS. Dang, I only live once so I'm spending my kids inheritance.

By "gravel" I assume you mean crushed limestone. That's a common surface for many bike trails. The tires you have pictured are ideal for that use.

Unless the 'gravel' is real loose you will be fine. More likely limestone than loose gravel anyway. Bring the camera for the ride report.

Ooops! I'm suppose to post the pics I took?

Sure! It's always nice to see where other forum members ride.